In the manufacture of bricks, old and well understood procedures are used. A wooden mold, open top and bottom and initially resting on a separate wooden bottom section called a slide board, is placed under a large press which forces wet clay downward simultaneously into all the mold compartments. When the press retracts, the now filled mold resting on the slide board is moved laterally from the press. The top surface of the clay is smooth and flush with the top surface of mold.
The filled mold is then covered with a pallet which is a metal sheet large enough to overly the mold and the clay contents. The complete unit consisting of the slide board bottom, the pallet top and the filled mold therebetween is moved by a conveyor to a so-called dumper, a device which inverts the unit to place the pallet on the bottom and the slide board on top.
The next operation according to the prior practice calls for the removal of the slide board from the top of the mold. This is followed by vertical lifting of the mold away from the wet bricks, so that the bricks remain side by side on the metal pallet.
The pallets with the wet bricks thereon are collected on racks and taken to a drying area. After sufficient drying, the bricks are fired in kilns all according to well understood procedures.
Following the separation of the slide board from the mold and the mold from the wet bricks, a conveyor takes the mold and slide board (then repositioned on the top of the mold) to another dumper which inverts the parts to place the slide board on the bottom with the mold on top. The mold and slide board then pass through a water spray which thoroughly wets the four vertical sides of each mold compartment and the upper surface of the underlying slide board. This occurs just prior to the mold again being placed in the press to receive the next charge of wet clay.
The application of water to the mold acts as a lubricant to facilitate subsequent removal of the mold and gives the finished brick surface a distinctive texture so that bricks so made are called "water struck" bricks.